‘We can learn from history if we wake up’

Filmmaker or historian? Spike Lee says he is both. His latest film, Da 5 Bloods, emerges against a backdrop of unparalleled civil unrest following the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

This film is about the Vietnam War but race, unsurprisingly, runs through the heart of it. Post-Covid, post-George Floyd the world really has to look at itself and find a way to change, he says. As he posted in the wake of the killing: ‘How Many Times Does History Have To Repeat Itself Before The Murder of Black Bodies In Broad Daylight Ends’?

• The Salisbury poisoning was arguably the biggest UK news story of 2018 but we know surprisingly little about the one person who died. Now, a new TV drama is setting the record straight about an ordinary couple caught up in a murky, evil enterprise. We speak to the stars, MyAnna Buring and Johnny Harris
• Soaps are back, and a nation rejoices! Emmerdale boss Jane Hudson knows viewers have missed them while they’ve been off-air. But coming back poses more problems than just new storylines. Social distancing on set, hygiene training and making takeaway beer from the Woolpack a thing are some of the issues they’ve been tackling
• Actor Steven Berkoff says war-ravaged London was a ‘horror’ to come back to aged 10, in a Letter to My Younger Self
• Exeter Big Issue vendor Donna had been thinking about moving on from The Big Issue, but after lockdown she’s realising how much the job means to her. ‘To all my customers, I can’t wait to see you again,’ she says
• Will hand sanitiser burst into flames if you leave it in your car? Fact/Fiction cuts through the smoke to find out

All this, and more, only in this week’s Big Issue!

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